Another World Upon Our Own.

85. Encounters at the End of the World (Werner Herzog, 2008)
100 Films of the 2000s

The second documentary I have for this list is Werner Herzog's Encounters at the End of the World. Encounters at the End of the World is not what you would initially expect from a film about the people that live and work in one of the most unforgiving locations on our planet. Though it does do a fine job documenting their work studying Antarctica, Herzog uses his film, in his general fashion, to attain much loftier and philosophical goals. Herzog even has a pleasant jab early on in the movie's narration stating that "this isn't a film about fluffy penguins."

Amazingly the entire film crew for Encounters at the End of the World consisted only of Werner Herzog himself and his photographer Peter Zeitlinger. Due to a grant received from The National Science Foundation's Antarctic Artists and Writers Program Herzog had more freedom than filmmakers would generally have filming in Antarctica though he had less than two months to shoot the movie. Daunting tasks and a short period of time to complete them is nothing new for Herzog. For Grizzly Man (2005) he edited his film from over 85 hours of recorded footage. For Fitzcarraldo (1982) he famously hauled a 320 ton steamship up the side of a hill and over. Plus the man has been close friends with the infamous and volatile Klaus Kinski and worked with him regularly for decades. Antarctica may appear to be harsh, unforgiving, and deadly but it is no Klaus Kinski.

Werner Herzog's film is marvelous in it's depiction of a place on our planet that is still mysterious and even seemingly alien. The people that live and work there can sometimes appear as unique as the environment and the lives they lead in this frozen wilderness are certainly extraordinary. Zeitlinger's photography is a wonder as well, capturing creatures and shots of Antarctica's frozen landscape and underwater locations in a way that exudes curiosity and awe. Herzog not only films this intriguing place and its people in a captivating fashion, he is able to use Encounters at the End of the World to explore the nature of our place on this planet, and our future. He ponders on our existence and how we live, and more specifically how we live in relation to our environment and our planet. It's an important film not only because of how much there is to still discover about the planet Earth but how much there is to discover about ourselves and to perhaps change for the better.

10 Films of 2008:

8. Encounters at the End of the World (Werner Herzog)
9. Paranoid Park (Gus Van Sant)
10. Redbelt (David Mamet)